Solo Career, AKA Annabel Blackman, is potentially one of Sydney’s best multi-taskers.
Her debut album Interior Delirium, released in July this year, was written and created simultaneously alongside both recent albums by Body Type: a Sydney post-punk girl band whom she is also a member.
“It is tricky, but it's good for just being able to explore different things… We don’t use keyboards or drum samplers [in Body Type]... You do go a bit crazy by yourself.”
The contents of Interior Delirium are as witty and astute as its title, with Blackman exhibiting her frustratingly impressive ability to eloquate experiences as universal. Such include being disturbed by loud construction (‘Spring Drills’), attempts to accumulate all your care for a person into the perfect gift (‘Spenda’), or lovers' bed hair (‘Bed Knot’).
Solo Career’s one-woman-set-up (with the occasional father as an assistant) is a far step from her position as resident shredder in Body Type, but nothing about Interior Delirium feels uncertain. Blackman admits to sometimes falling victim to the echo chamber of perfectionism as a solo act, with some of the tracks on the album previously in motion for upwards of ten years.
“It’s just that thing of hustling myself to get it done. It was a long process finishing bits and pieces but also, I was just a bit intimidated by the entourage of things I needed to do… Playing in Body Type, I’m so used to having this cohort of professional planners around me.”
But the trivialities faced in solitude have done nothing but strengthen her sound, creating an exciting foundation for Solo Career releases to come. From post-punk droning to intricate dreamlike melodies, she’s proven herself a multifaceted and unpredictable new force in Sydney’s music scene.
Words by Sabine Lee Cook